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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No.__. 

Shelf _...4iV53 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Religious Movements for 
Social Betterment 



By Josiah Strong 



OUR COUNTRY : Its Possible Future and its 
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The Baker and Taylor Co., Publishers, 
5 & 7 East Sixteenth St., New York. 



Religious Movements for 
Social Betterment 



BY 



Dr. Josiah Strong 



President of the League for Social Service, New York 

• Special Agent for the Department of Education and Social 

Economy for the United States Commission to the 

Paris Exposition of 1900 

and 

Author of "Our Country," "The New Era," " Expansion," et 



New York 

The Baker and Taylor Company 

5 and 7 East Sixteenth Street 



1 



82053 



i-ibpary of Coogpoaa 

Two Coptes Received 
DEC 1 1900 

Copyright flnlry 

SECOND COPY 

0«jiv«rad to 

OROtR DIVISION 
OFC 3 19Q0 I 



dr 



Copyright, igoo, 

BY 

JOSIAH STRONG. 

Copyright, igoo, 

BY 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 



ROBERT DRUMMOND, PRINTER, NEW YORK 



PREFACE 

The Department of Social Economy 
for the United States Commission to the 
Paris Exposition of 1900 issued a series 
of monographs on American Social 
Economics, of which Professor Herbert 
B. Adams of Johns Hopkins University 
was the editor. This volume is No. 
XI V of that series, and was prepared by 
the writer at the invitation of the Com- 
mission. 

It was primarily intended to inter- 
pret the exhibit in social economy which 
was made, at the request of the Govern- 
ment, by the League for Social Service 
at the Paris Exposition ; but the de- 
5 



PREFACE 

mand for it in America has been such as 
to call for another edition in more per- 
manent form. 

It is hoped that pointing out the secret 
of success of the most notable religious 
movements of the present generation 
will serve to indicate the causes of fail- 
ure on the part of so many churches to 
reach the multitude with saving influ- 
ence. 

J.S. 

New York, September, 1900. 

6 



CONTENTS 
I 

PAGE 

Nature of the Change taking Place in Relig- 
ious Activities. Directed to the Uplifting of 
the Whole Man, and to the Salvation of 
Society lo 

II 

Causes of the Change taking Place in Religious 
Activities. i. The Change in Civilization 
from an Individualistic to a Social Type. 2. 
The Progress ot Science, revealing the Inter- 
dependence of Body and Mind. 3. The Re- 
discovery of the Kingdom of God 14 

III 

Results of the Change taking Place in Relig- 
ious Activities, i. A New Church Archi- 
tecture. 2. The Application of Religion to 
Every-day Life. 3. Churches regaining a Hold 
on the Multitude. 4. The drawing of the 
Churches into Closer Relations. 5. Influence 
on Civilization 25 

7 



CONTENTS 
IV 

PAGB 

Illustrations. i. The so-called Institutional 
Church. 2. Organized Denominational Effort 
for Social Betterment. 3. The Young Men's 
Christian Association. 4. The Young Wom- 
en's Christian Association. 5. The Salva- 
tion Army 42 

8 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS FOR 
SOCIAL BETTERMENT 



Nothing has been more characteristic 
of the nineteenth century than change. 
Comparing its beginning with its end, 
one might almost say of the United 
States as a Japanese said of Japan, 
'' Nothing remains the same except the 
natural scenery." 

If changes in the world of ideas have 
been less obvious than in the material 
world, they have been neither less real 
nor less radical. Nowhere have these 
changes been more marked than in the 
religious sphere ; and they have found 
expression in a change of religious 
activity which is significant in its nature, 
its origin, and its results. 
9 



NATURE OF THE CHANGE IN RELIGIOUS 
ACTIVITIES 

Religion is defined as "the recog- 
nition of God as an object of worship, 
love, and obedience ; right feelings 
toward God as rightly apprehended." 
This has been the common conception 
of religion ; hence religious activities 
have been directed almost exclusively to 
bringing men into right relations with 
God. 

The avowed object of endeavor has 
been not so much the salvation of the 
man as the salvation of the soul. The 
body has not been altogether neglected. 
There have been many beautiful minis- 

lO 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

trations, in the name of religion, to the 
needy, the sick, and the suffering; but 
such ministrations have been more com- 
monly classified under philanthropy. 
Especially have the organized activities 
of religion been directed to spiritual re- 
sults. 

So far as religion has made men tem- 
perate, moral, industrious, and unselfish, 
it has had an important part in im- 
proving social conditions. A man can 
hardly become conscientious toward 
God without becoming a better neigh- 
bor and a more worthy citizen. Thus 
society has incidentally reaped many 
benefits from the older forms of religious 
activity. Indeed, Mr. Benjamin Kidd 
argues that religion has ever been the 
principal factor in social progress. But 
such results have been quite secondary, 

and for the most part indirect and unin- 
II 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

tended. The primary, direct, aPxd con- 
scious aim of religious organizations has 
been to bring souls into right relations 
with God. Care for the body has been 
for the sake of the soul. The eye has 
been fixed upon the hereafter, and the 
inspiration has come from out the un- 
seen world. 

The newer activities, however, recog- 
nize the dignity and worth of the human 
body and the importance of its needs. 
Men are not looking so far afield to find 
God and heaven and duty. Religion 
is dealing less in futures and laying 
more emphasis on the present. There 
is less spurning of earth to gain heaven, 
and more effort to bring heaven to 
earth. Men are beginning to see that 
right relations with man are as real a 
part of the Christian religion as are right 
relations with God, and that the estab- 

12 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

lishment of such relations should be a 
conscious object in religious effort. 

Expressed in a word, the nature of 
the change in religious activities is that 
they are now beginning to be directed 
to the uplifting of the whole man instead 
of a fraction of him, and to the salvation 
of society as well as to that of the in- 
dividual. 

13 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 



II 



CAUSES OF THIS CHANGE IN RELIGIOUS 
ACTIVITIES 

I. One of the most potent causes has 
been the change in civilization, during 
the past century, from an individuaHstic 
to a social type. 

Down to the nineteenth century and 
well on to the middle of it, the power by 
which the world's work was done was 
individual because it was muscular. A 
man could go apart from his fellows, 
take his power with him, and so do his 
work by himself. Industrial indepen- 
dence produced an individualistic civili- 
zation. 

The introduction of the steam-engine 
H 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

de-individualized power and centralized 
it. Workmen could no longer do their 
work where they pleased, and with little 
or no reference to each other. They 
must gather around the source of power. 
This meant the factory system, the or- 
ganization of industry, the division of 
labor, the redistribution of population and 
its concentration in cities, and the in- 
creasing interdependence of the different 
members of society. Thus the substitu- 
tion of mechanical for muscular power, 
by changing the fundamental conditions 
of industry, transformed civilization. 

Life must always be adjusted to its 
environments. A radical change in the 
latter necessitates a corresponding change 
in the former. When, therefore, civili- 
zation changed from an individualistic to 
a social type, it constituted a new envi- 
ronment, to which the churches must 
15 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

needs readjust themselves. That pro- 
cess of readjustment is now taking place. 

The Christian religion deals with man in 
his relations to God and to his fellows. It 
is not strange that, when civilization was 
individualistic, religious teaching and acti- 
vity should emphasize almost exclusively 
man's Godward relations ; and it is quite 
natural that, as the close and multiplied 
relations of a new and complex social 
order present strange and difficult prob- 
lems, we should turn to the neglected 
social teachings of Jesus, and lay new 
stress on our manward obligations. 

2. Again, the change in religious acti- 
vities which has been pointed out is due 
in part to the progress of science, which 
has revealed the interdependence of body 
and mind, and the influence of physical 
conditions on spiritual life. 

It is found that there is an intimate 
i6 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

relation between a bad environment and 
bad habits ; that bad sanitation has not a 
little to do with bad morals ; that bad 
ventilation and bad cooking are respon- 
sible for much drunkenness. 

We are learning that whatsoever so- 
ciety sows, that must it also reap ; that 
pauperism and intemperance, vice and 
crime, are as natural as any other har- 
vests ; and that to expect to escape ef- 
fects without removing their causes is to 
mock God, who is a God of law. 

We are beginning to see that the . 
divine methods are scientific, and that if 
we are to be effective '' laborers together 
with God," our methods must also be 
scientific. 

3. A third cause for the change in \J 
religious activities which is taking place 
is the rediscovery of the kingdom of 
God. 

17 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

The Founder of the Christian religion 
had very much to say about the king- 
dom of God and very little to say about 
the church. Until recently His disciples 
for many hundreds of years have had 
very much to say about the church and 
very little to say about the kingdom of 
God. Many have thought the two were 
synonymous ; and many have supposed 
that the ''kingdom of God" or the 
"kingdom of heaven," as used in the 
Scriptures, referred to the home of the 
blessed dead. 

The early Christian conception of the 
kingdom of God as a new social ideal 
yet to be realized on the earth, had nearly 
faded out of Christian thought, when the 
social unrest and agitation naturally at- 
tendant on the maladjustments of the 
new civilization, together with the theo- 
logical return to Christ, resulted in the 
i8 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

rediscovery of the kingdom of God — 
an event the importance of which men 
have as yet begun only dimly to per- 
ceive. 

The religion of a people is the most 
vital and determinative principle of their 
civilization. Mr. Kidd has shown that it 
is the great integrating force in social 
organization. A vital religious faith 
means a growing and aggressive civil- 
ization, because life is always construc- 
tive. A dying religious faith means a 
decaying civilization, because death is 
always disintegrative. An important 
modification of the religious faith means 
a corresponding modification of civiliza- 
tion, because a new form of life finds a 
new form of expression. 

Mr. Lecky calls attention to the fact 
that the brilliant galaxy of philosophers 
and historians who lived during the first 
19 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

three centuries of the Christian era, and 
who were profoundly conscious of the 
decay of Roman civilization, utterly 
failed to perceive the significance of the 
new religion, or to suspect that it was 
creating a new civilization out of the de- 
composition around them. 

In like manner many thinking men 
to-day fail to perceive the profound im- 
portance of the religious changes which 
are taking place, or to suspect that they 
are destined to produce, and are even 
now beginning to produce, a new type 
of civilization. 

So long as the churches lost sight of 
the kingdom of God, that is, of Christ's 
social ideal, as something possible of 
realization on the earth, they confined 
their efforts almost wholly to fitting men 
for a perfect society in heaven, and ac- 
cordingly directed their efforts to the 

20 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

spiritual element in man, giving scant 
attention to his body and to physical 
conditions. Thus the churches very 
naturally looked upon their saving 
mission as confined not only to the in- 
dividual but to a fraction of him. 

As fast as the churches regain Christ's 
point of view and come to believe that 
the earth is to be redeemed from its 
evils, they see that it is their duty to 
labor for the realization of Christ's social 
ideal, and they adapt their methods ac- 
cordingly; they no longer look upon 
duty as a circle described around the 
individual as the center, but rather as an 
ellipse described around the individual 
and society as the two foci. 

As the churches regain the Christian 
social ideal and discover that the religion 
of Christ was intended to deal with body 
as well as with soul, with society as well 

21 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

as with the individual, they perceive 
that philanthropy is to be recognized 
as a part of religion, not as something to 
be distinguished from it ; and they ac- 
cordingly extend their activities to in- 
clude objects which a generation ago 
would have been deemed quite foreign 
to their proper work. 

As religion is seen to include the 
whole man and the entire life, the old 
distinction between the ** sacred" and 
the ''secular" disappears, and thus the 
sphere of the churches' activities is 
greatly enlarged. 

It must not be supposed, however, 
that the important changes which have 
taken place in religious activities have 
always or generally been adopted 
because they had been reasoned out as 
logical necessities, demanded by the new 
conditions of a new civilization, or by 

22 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

the revelations of science, or by the 
rediscovery of the kingdom of God. 
Such changes are inaugurated by a 
practical common sense which does not 
stop to philosophize. Many adaptations 
to changed conditions are made by men 
as they are by animals and plants, un- 
consciously; and so long as they are 
unconscious they are slow. Only when 
change becomes a conscious need and 
the object of direct effort does the adap- 
tation become rapid. 

The important change which is taking 
place in religious activities is, as yet, by 
no means general, but it has become suf- 
ficiently common to command attention 
and to demand explanation ; and when 
its significance, its origin, and its effects 
are generally understood, the process of 
adaptation, which is now well begun, 
will be rapidly completed. Already has 
23 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the necessity of new methods to meet 

new conditions become a conscious 

need and the direct object of endeavor 

on the part of many. 
24 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 



III 



RESULTS OF THE CHANGE IN RELIGIOUS 
ACTIVITIES 

I. Among the most obvious of these 
results is the change which is taking 
place in church architecture. 

The form in which life expresses itself 
is indicative. Church architecture is no 
more fortuitous than is the shell of the 
moUusk ; and like that shell it is deter- 
mined by the life which inhabits it. 
When thought had little to do with 
religion and the great object of the 
church service was to impress the 
senses and to inspire devout feelings, 
men built the cathedral, which stood like 
a petrified forest, among whose stony 
25 



Religious movements 

trunks and branches sifted the colored 
lights of stained windows, while into the 
lofty arches floated sacred incense 
mingled with the sweet harmonies of 
music. The cathedral was a wretched 
auditorium, but was admirably adapted 
to the prevailing conception of public 
worship and the uses of the sanctu- 
ary. 

Among the peoples where the right of 
private judgment triumphed and religion 
came to be regarded not as a matter of 
feeling, but of life to be controlled by 
conviction rather than impulse, there in- 
struction naturally became the principal 
part of public worship, and the church 
accordingly became an auditorium, where 
the people met to hear the sermon. 

Thus the plain *' meeting-house " of 

the reformed churches was as perfect an 

expression of the religious life which 
26 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

worshiped within as was the cathedral 
of the Middle Ages. 

In the " institutional church " there has 
appeared a new type of church architec- 
ture, which differs as widely from the 
"meeting-house " of the past few cen- 
turies as that differed from the cathedral 
which preceded it ; and this change in 
the church edifice is the natural and 
necessary result of the change which is 
taking place in the churches' concep- 
tion of their mission and the consequent 
change in methods. 

The audience-room of course remains, 
but it no longer monopolizes the structure. 
With the larger conception of Christian- 
ity which is beginning to obtain, there 
are added to the auditorium, parlors for 
the cultivation of the social life, reading- 
rooms, classrooms and shops for intel- 
lectual and industrial training, and, more 
^1 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

remarkable still, facilities for physical cul- 
ture and for recreation — a gymnasium, 
baths, very likely a swimming-pool, and 
perhaps a bowling-alley, which not long 
since would have been deemed sacri- 
legious. 

2. Another and most important result 
of the change in religious activities is the 
practical application of religion to every- 
day life which is beginning to be made. 

The '* meeting-house," standing apart, 
surrounded with graves, silent and dark 
five or six days out of the seven, was 
fairly indicative of the conception of re- 
ligion which has commonly prevailed in 
the United States and is still widely 
prevalent. Religion has been more as- 
sociated with death than with life, has 
emphasized eternity rather than time, 
the other world rather than this. It has 

made levies upon a small portion of 
28 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

time and of substance, which it has set 
apart to ^' sacred " uses, and has left the 
remainder to " secular." 

The church edifice which embodies 
the new ideas and exemplifies the new 
activities is in the most populous neigh- 
borhood, and is open every day and •" 
every night, seeking to influence the 
great tides of life which constantly flow 
past it and into it. 

Methods which, like those of the new 
religious activities, recognize the inter- 
dependence of soul and body, are much 
more likely to be practical and to adapt 
themselves to the varying conditions 
and needs of human life than those 
which ignore either body or soul. A re- 
ligion which neglects the spiritual life 
becomes formal and sensuous, while 
one which ignores the physical life be- 
comes more or less mystical and effem- 
29 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

inate, loses its virility, and has little influ- 
ence over men or affairs. The worldly 
*'six bottle" parson of the eighteenth 
century and the other-worldly and often 
impracticable parson of the nineteenth 
century illustrate the two opposite mis- 
takes. 

Now the kingdom of heaven, as Pres- 
ident John Bascom has said, *' is the true 
synthesis of the universe of God, phys- 
ical and spiritual." The social ideal of 
Jesus, therefore, establishes a balance, 
which saves from both Scylla and Cha- 
rybdis. Attaching due importance to 
the physical, as the foundation which 
conditions the intellectual and spiritual 
superstructure, saves from impracticabil- 
ity. The ideal does not sail off into the 
clouds like a balloon, but is grappled to 
the physical life which is to be lifted. 
On the other hand, the recognition of 
30 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

the spiritual as that part of man which is 
noblest and most real, the end for which 
the physical exists, saves from the down- 
ward pull of materialism, which ends in 
the grossness and corruption of animal- 
ism. 

These new methods, because they 
recognize the whole man, touch and in- 
fluence the entire life. 

This new religious activity, springing 
as we have seen from the necessities of 
a social civilization and from the re- 
discovery of the kingdom of God, is 
directed to social as well as to individual 
needs. Inspired by a social ideal, which 
does not acknowledge any necessary or 
permanent evils, it does not hesitate to 
attack any and every social ill. There 
is no fear of dragging the white robes of 
religion in the mire of politics or of be- 
griming them in the dusty marts of 
31 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

trade. The religion which inspires 
these activities Hves among the people 
and wears every- day clothes, which are 
not soiled by the doing of every-day 
duty. 

3. A third result of this change in 
religious activities is one which follows 
naturally from the preceding. The 
churches and other religious organiza- 
tions which have adopted these new 
methods are regaining or obtaining a 
hold on the multitude. 

For fifteen years or more, one of the 
stock subjects for discussion at ecclesi- 
astical gatherings has been *' How to 
Reach the Masses." The failure of 
the churches to win the multitude, the 
extinction of churches in the down-town 
districts of our larger cities or their re- 
moval to save their lives, and the large 
proportion of the population which is 
3^ 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

quite alienated from the churches, are 
facts which have long been as obvious 
as they were lamentable. 

Now it is very significant that the 
working multitude who shun the 
churches flock to the meetings of the 
Salvation Army ; and the young men, 
whose absence is especially mourned in 
the churches, fill the rooms of the 
Young Men's Christian Association ; 
while both of these classes crowd the 
so-called institutional churches. 

As we shall see later, the churches of 
this class, the Young Men's Christian 
Association, and the Salvation Army 
have all adopted these newer methods 
of Christian work ; and it can be shown 
that without reasonable doubt their suc- 
cess has been due chiefly to that fact. 

The three classes of religious organi- 
zations referred to above differ from 
33 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

each other in many particulars, but re- 
semble one another in this, viz., they all 
alike recognize the whole man, body as 
well as soul, and adapt their methods 
accordingly. Precisely at this point 
they differ radically from the churches of 
the ordinary type. As they succeed 
where these churches fail, is it not 
reasonable to attribute their common 
success to the methods which they have 
in common, and which differentiate their 
activities from those of the old-line 
churches ? 

A somewhat prominent representative 
of the older methods was heard by the 
writer to say : '* The church has no busi- 
ness with a man's dirty face ; the church 
has no business with a man's naked 
back ; the church has no business with a 
man's empty stomach. The church has 
just one business with a man, and that is 
34 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

to save his soul." This is a fair presen- 
tation of a view which is still very com- 
mon, and which goes far to account for 
the churches' loss of influence over the 
multitude. 

An indifferent man cannot be won 
by a church which he believes to be 
thoroughly selfish. If that church is 
quite indifferent to his physrcal needs, 
which to him are the most real — perhaps 
the only ones of which he is conscious 
at the time — her most earnest and 
disinterested efforts in behalf of his 
spiritual welfare are likely to be mis- 
understood. He believes that the 
church seeks not him but his, that her 
aim is not to benefit him so much as to 
built up herself. 

He IS not living on a high spiritual 
plane where he can appreciate the 
noblest motives. If he were, he would 
3S 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

not need to be sought by the church. 
His Hfe is largely animal ; he is keenly 
conscious of physical wants. Spiritual 
things seem to him unreal, and the 
church which confines her activities to 
the spiritual sphere seems to him to be 
dealing with unrealities and to be far 
removed from every-day life. If the 
church would reach him, she must find 
him on the plane where he is. It is 
useless to seek him where he is not. 

The Christ evidently thought he had 
some business with empty stomachs. He 
had business also with the lame, the 
halt, the deaf, and the blind. He sym- 
pathized with physical needs and min- 
istered to them ; and it is not strange 
that when the churches return to the 
spirit and methods of their Master, the 
common people hear them gladly, even 
as they heard Him. 
36 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

4. A fourth result of this change in 
religious activities is the drawing of the 
churches into closer relations. 

As social consciousness grows more 
distinct, the oneness of the life of so- 
ciety becomes more apparent, and the 
existing competition of the churches ap- 
pears more and more absurd and sinful. 
There is an increasing desire on the part 
of different communions to draw into 
closer relations. There has been much 
discussion of cooperation, of federation, 
and of organic union ; but there are many 
obstacles in the way, some of which are 
for the present insurmountable. 

Differences of church policy are deep- 
seated. Absolutism and democracy can 
no more compromise in church than in 
state, and neither is willing to make a 
complete surrender to the other. Differ- 
ences of creed are not eliminated by de- 
37 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

bate ; discussion is divisive. Radical 
differences of belief forbid cooperation in 
distinctively religious work. Protestants, 
Roman Catholics, and Jews cannot unite 
in evangelistic efforts. 

But when we come to social better- 
ment, we find no historic differences sep- 
arating religious bodies. There is no 
peculiar Presbyterian treatment of crime. 
There is no distinctive Methodist solu- 
tion of the problem of pauperism. There 
is no special Baptist method of cleansing 
the Augean stables of our municipal cor- 
ruption (though it must be confessed that 
prolonged immersion would seem to 
promise better results than mere sprink- 
ling). And this sphere of social better- 
ment, in which this cooperation of the 
churches is most practicable, is precisely 
the field in which that cooperation is 
most needed. Individual regeneration 
38 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

may be successfully undertaken by the 
individual church, but social regeneration 
is a task so vast that it demands the 
united efforts of all organizations which 
aim at human betterment. 

5. One more result of this change in 
religious activities is its influence on 
civilization. 

The progress of civilization depends 
on the differentiation of the individual and 
the higher organization of society made 
possible thereby. These are the two 
feet on which civilization climbs upward. 
Now one and then the other is put for- 
ward. For nearly four hundred years — 
since the beginning of the German Ref- 
ormation — the individualizing process 
has had sway. This has prepared the 
way for a great social movement, already 
inaugurated, as we have seen, by the de- 
individualizing and centralizing of power 
39 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

in the industrial world, when steam was 
substituted for muscle. The movement 
toward a higher social organization is 
well under way, but it is unconscious and 
blind, and needs direction. 

The little child is cared for by others ; 
he is responsible for nothing ; his prog- 
ress is as unintended as it is uncon- 
scious. But with the dawn of self- con- 
consciousness comes the beginning of 
responsibility, which grows with his grow- 
ing intelligence, until he is charged with 
his own destiny. 

In like manner, the evolution of the 
race was unintended and unconscious, 
secured by natural selection ; but with 
the development of intelligence, artificial 
selection was substituted for natural. 

Even so, the process of social organi- 
zation has been, so far as man is con- 
cerned, unintended and unconscious, the 
40 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

result of forces for whose operation no 
man was responsible. But now society 
is coming to self-consciousness, and with 
its dawn comes a new responsibility. The 
social movement must now get eyes ; it 
must become intelligent, conscious, and 
purposeful. 

As we have already seen, religion has 
been the great integrating force in so- 
ciety, even though its aim has been in- 
dividual, rather than social, salvation. 
When, therefore, religious activities are 
consciously and intelligently directed to 
social betterment, we may reasonably 
expect that a profound impulse will be 
given to social progress and thus to civ- 
ilization. 

41 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 



IV 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Having considered the nature, origin, 
and results of the change which is tak- 
ing place in religious methods, let us 
turn to some illustrations of these new 
activities. 

I. The so-called Institutional Church 

About a dozen years ago, President 
W. J. Tucker, in an address at Berkeley 
Temple, Boston, characterized the newly 
adopted methods of that church as *' in- 
V stitutional." A morning paper, report- 
ing the address, referred to Berkeley 
Temple as an ''institutional church"; 

and this is said to have been the origin 
42 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

of the name now applied to a well-de- 
fined class of churches — a name which 
no one likes and every one uses. 

The ordinary church would seem to 
exist primarily if not solely for purposes 
of worship, which it offers at stated inter- 
vals. Its work, if it engages in any, has 
for its immediate object the increase of 
the number of its worshipers or their edi- 
fication. Its benevolences are, for the 
most part, to multiply the number of 
churches like itself ; and its charities are 
incidental. 

While the institutional church does 
not neglect worship, it has an enthusi- 
asm for service. Probably its spirit and 
aims cannot be better expressed than in 
the words of the platform of the Open 
and Institutional Church League : '' In- 
asmuch as the Christ came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, the 
43 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

open and institutional church, filled and 
moved by His spirit of ministering love, 
seeks to become the center and source 
of all beneficent and philanthropic effort, 
and to take the leading part in every 
movement which has for its end the 
alleviation of human suffering, the ele- 
vation of man, and the betterment of the 
world. 

''Thus the open and institutional 
church aims to save all men and all of 
the man by all means, abolishing so far 
as possible the distinction between the 
religious and secular, and sanctifying all 
days and all means to the great end of 
saving the world for Christ." 

Doubtless this language might for the 
most part be applied to the churches of 
the apostolic age, and perhaps there have 
been some churches in every age of the 
Christian era which might be fitly de- 
44 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

scribed in the above words. Certain it 
is that a generation ago there were a 
few churches in New York which were 
institutional in everything but name. 

In recent years, however, the redistri- 
bution of population has created new 
conditions both in city and country, 
which have demanded a readaptation on 
the part of the churches ; and many, by 
virtue of adjusting themselves to a new 
environment, have become institutional. 

In this adaptation to a changed envi- 
ronment we discover the distinguishing 
characteristic of the institutional church, 
viz., the fact that it assumes certain func- 
tions of the home. 

The church and the home are the 
two great saving institutions of society. 
When the home is what it ought to be 
it affords such an environment as makes 
possible a normal development of body 
45 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

and soul. When it is pretty much all 
that it ought not to be, and is corrupting 
to both soul and body, the appeals of the 
church to the spiritual life are to little or 
no purpose. 

Hence, as the tenement-house has 
been substituted for the comfortable 
home, the churches working on the old 
lines have either died or have followed 
the well-to-do class up-town. Thus in 
New York, while 200,000 people moved 
in below Fourteenth Street, seventeen 
Protestant churches of the old type 
moved out. 

The institutional church, however, 

succeeds because it adapts itself to 

changed conditions. It finds that the 

people living around it have in their 

homes no opportunity to take a bath ; it 

therefore furnishes bathing facilities. It 

sees that the people have little or no 
46 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

healthful social life ; it accordingly opens 
attractive social rooms, and organizes 
clubs for men, women, boys, and girls. 
The people know little of legitimate 
amusement ; the church therefore pro- 
vides it. They are ignorant of house- 
hold economy ; the church establishes 
its cooking-schools, its sewing-classes, 
and the like. In their homes the people 
have few books and papers; in the 
church they find a free reading-room 
and library. The homes afford no op- 
portunity for intellectual cultivation ; the 
church opens evening schools and pro- 
vides lecture courses. As in the human 
organism, when one organ fails, its func- 
tions are often undertaken and more or 
less imperfectly performed by some other 
organ ; so in the great social organism 
of the city, when the home fails, the 
church sometimes undertakes the func- 
47 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

tions of the home. Such a church we 
call ** institutional." 

The conditions which demand such 
service of the church are on the increase. 
In the city, the home is disappearing at 
both social extremes. Many of the rich 
flit from continent to continent, from one 
latitude to another. They have more 
stopping-places than there are seasons. 
They have so many houses that they 
have no home. The hotel population is 
rapidly growing. 

At the other social extreme, more and 
more must rent, because as cities become 
more populous, real estate appreciates in 
value until its price becomes prohibitory 
to an ever-increasing number. The 
larger the city, the larger is the percent- 
age of the tenement population. Of 
course there may be a true home in a 

tenement, but, generally speaking, the 
48 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

increase of the restaurant population 
means the decrease of homes. More- 
over, as the standard of living rises, an 
increasing proportion of young men do 
not marry. And, again, the opening of 
many industries to women mars many a 
home by taking the mother to the fac- 
tory, and prevents the founding of many 
new homes by making an increasing 
proportion of women independent of 
marriage. 

Thus there is an increasing popula 
tion, which, though by no means shelter- 
less, is really homeless, and can enjoy 
the restraining, elevating, and saving in- 
fluences of the home only as they are 
provided by the church. To meet these 
necessities of modern civilization institu- 
tional churches are likely to be multi- 
plied. 

Nor are these necessities peculiar to 
49 



-I 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the city. As extreme heat and extreme 
cold alike produce a blister, so the con- 
gestion of population in the city slum 
and its depletion in the country district 
produce much the same results in the 
home. Poverty and its effects are the 
same in either case. The isolation of a 
crowd is quite as great as that of the 
wilderness ; and the resulting lack of 
mental and moral stimulus is as marked 
in the lonely country as in the crowded 
slum, while a corresponding growth of 
animalism appears in both. 

That institutional methods may be 
successfully adapted to both city and 
country will appear from the illustrations 
which follow. 

The activities characteristic of institu- 
tional churches in general may be classi- 
fied as educational, social, recreational, 
and charitable. As the genius of the 
50 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

institutional church consists in adapta- 
tion to its environment, the most pro- 
nounced activities of a given church 
depend on the most pronounced needs 
of its locality. Where the neighbor- 
hood is largely occupied by boarding- 
houses filled with young men and 
women who have come to the city from 
country homes and who have secured 
positions as clerks, the work on which 
special emphasis is laid is likely to be 
educational and social, as in the case of 
Berkeley Temple, Boston. If the pop- 
ulation is composed chiefly of men en- 
gaged in heavy manual labor, the prin- 
cipal demand will be not for educational 
facilities but for baths and recreation, 
which are special features of the work 
of the Jersey City Tabernacle. If there 
is a thoroughly mixed population, with 
every sort of need, such as surrounds St. 
51 



^ 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

Bartholomew's Parish House in New 
York, the church responds with every 
sort of helpful ministration. 

The limits of this monograph forbid 
a descriptive list of the institutional 
churches of the United States. The 
most that can be attempted is an outline 
of the many-sided work of one or two, 
to give some idea of its scope and of its 
diversified character, and then mere 
mention of exceptional activities here 
and there. Such activities are noted, not 
because they are necessarily the princi- 
pal features in the work of the churches 
to which they belong, but because, being 
exceptional, they may prove of special 
value by way of suggestion. 

St. Bartholomew's Church (Protestant 

Episcopal), New York, affords the best 

illustration of a church ministering in a 

thousand ways to the numberless ^needs 

52 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

of the heterogeneous population of a 
great American city. 

There are eighteen different services 
on Sunday in the church and the Parish 
House, which makes the Sabbath quite a 
day of rest, as the average number of 
gatherings of all kinds for the remainder 
of the week is thirty-two daily. 

The schedule of services, meetings of 
all sorts, classes, and the like, for each 
day in the week, shows a total of 2 1 2 for 
the seven days. Six of these, however, 
are for a portion of the year only, and 
ten are irregular, occurring only once or 
twice a month. 

Among the Sunday services in the 
Parish House are one in German, one 
in Armenian, and one in Chinese ; there 
are also regular services in the Swedish 
Chapel. Rescue mission work, with its 
nightly meetings, has been a prominent 
53 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

feature of the Parish House. The ag- 
gregate attendance upon these meetings 
has been as large as 120,000 in a year, 
and 5000 have professed to seek the 
new life. 

There are 2146 communicants in the 
entire parish. Among the 152 con- 
firmed the past year were eight Chi- 
nese, seventeen Armenians, and forty- 
five adult Germans. Surpllced choirs of 
each of the above nationalities render 
the music in their own language in the 
missions. 

In the Parish House Sabbath-school, 
which shows a total enrollment of 1408, 
there are classes taught in Armenian, 
Syriac, and Turkish, as well as In Eng- 
lish. 

This institution is proving to be an 
alembic in which many foreigners are 
being transmuted into Americans. The 
54 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

Armenian helper writes : ** I am proud 
to say that as a good citizen I taught 
twenty-one Armenians, my old country- 
men, the United States Constitu- 
tion." 

Clubs are a large part of the work. 
Membership in the Girls' Evening Club 
entitles the holder to *' the use of the 
club-rooms and library ; access to the 
large hall every evening after nine 
o'clock, to the physical-culture classes, 
lectures, talks, entertainments, discussion 
class, glee club, literature class, English- 
composition class, the Helping Hand 
Society, Penny Provident and Mutual 
Benefit Funds ; the privilege of joining 
one class a week in either dressmaking, 
millinery, embroidery, drawn work, sys- 
tem sewing or cooking, and also, by 
paying a small fee, the privilege of enter- 
ing a class in stenography, typewriting, 
55 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

French, or bookkeeping." Correspond- 
ing advantages attend membership in 
the other clubs. There are some 2200 
persons in the Men's, Boys' and Girls' 
Clubs, the Armenian Club, and the Chi- 
nese Guild. 

In addition to these many facilities for 
self-development, there are five circles of 
King's Daughters and various missionary 
societies to teach unselfish service. 

A unique feature of the Parish House 
is its Roof Garden, on the top of nine 
busy stories. In long boxes the children 
plant flowers and vegetables. These 
have a background of lilac-bushes, syr- 
inga, dulcia, and other flowering shrubs 
in large tubs, while morning-glories, 
honeysuckle, and ivy climb on the fence 
which surrounds the roof. The garden 
is used for the instruction and amuse- 
ment of the children in the kindergarten 
56 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

when the weather permits, and is open 
evenings to various societies. 

These children of the brick-and- mor- 
tar city are often seen to kiss and caress 
the flowers which they cultivate in the 
Roof Garden. The bringing of a bit of 
country to the Parish House was sug- 
gested by the fact that a little girl, while 
crossing a bridge over a railroad-track, 
dropped her only rubber doll on a 
moving train " so that it could see the 
country." 

A Holiday House at Washington, 
Conn., gave more than a bit of country 
to 343 girls last summer. 

The Fresh Air work of the parish 
gave 2046 outings, mostly to children 
and tired mothers. 

The Tailor Shop provides temporary 
work for many out of employment, 
and supplies garments for children in 
57 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the Sabbath-school and the Industrial 
School. There were 3625 garments 
received, made over and repaired, or 
made of new materials the past year. 
There were I483.93 received for sales, 
and 415 garments were given away. 
In addition to the above, the Benevolent 
Society provided 1624 garments, of 
which 680 were given away and 568 
were sold. 

The report of the Penny Provident 
Fund shows #1844.82 received from 
2648 depositors. 

One of the most beneficent of St. 
Bartholomew's many ministries is the 
Employment Bureau, which is conducted 
on business principles. During the past 
year, 1866 situations were filled in the 
domestic department, 186 in the mercan- 
tile department, 48 in the professional 
department, and 459 in the mechanical 
58 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

and labor departments. Half a hundred 
nationalities were represented by the 
applicants to this bureau. 

The Clinic had 7693 new patients last 
year. The total number of consultations 
was 24,146. The total number of pre- 
scriptions written was 13,607, of which 
1298 were free. 

A Loan Association has saved many 
from falling into the hands of Shylock. 
Like the Employment Bureau, it is con- 
ducted strictly on business principles. 
It received #70,390.55 during the year, 
and disbursed 03,375.12. It makes 
loans to the poor at much lower rates 
than they could get elsewhere, and it is 
so managed as to pay running expenses. 

The amount expended by the church 

on the Parish House during the year 

was 152,002.78, and the total amount 

given for home expenditure and for 

59 



1^ 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

benevolent contributions was #208,242. 
Including engineers, porters, etc., there 
are, all told, about fifty salaried workers 
at the Parish House. 

The splendid work of St. Bartholo- 
mew's shows what can be done when 
occurs the rare combination of a big 
brain, a big heart, and a big treasury. 
Few churches, however, are both able 
and willing to make so large an expen- 
diture. It is, therefore, desirable to give 
some account of a diversified and emi- 
nently successful work on which is ex- 
pended no more than the average 
church in the city is quite able to raise. 

Morgan Chapel (Methodist Episcopal), 

Boston, is situated in a thickly settled 

tenement district and aims to be, as 

nearly as possible, self-supporting. It is 

an old church into which was grafted the 

new life five years ago. 
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FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

Bathing facilities being greatly needed 
in that locality, a number of baths were 
placed in the basement of the church. 
A nominal charge of five cents made 
them more than self-supporting, and they 
have yielded a surplus for the Reading 
Room. 

A School of Handicraft has been 
opened, in which printing, cobbling, 
tailoring, dressmaking, and carpentry are 
taught by volunteer instructors. After 
a time this school developed into a co- 
operative industrial work, which has been 
a great benefaction to many hundreds 
of necessitous people. Unemployed 
women are set to work repairing gar- 
ments which have been contributed and 
which are afterward sold. A variety of 
employments is furnished for idle men. 
An Employment Bureau finds perma- 
nent situations for many. 
6i 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

Instruction is given in vocal and in 
all kinds of instrumental music, by teach- 
ers from the various Boston conserva- 
tories. 

A Day Nursery and Kindergarten are 
in successful operation. 

A Children's Industrial School meets 
Saturday afternoons, with an average 
attendance of about 300. 

A Medical Mission has been estab- 
lished, and several physicians of the city 
have volunteered their services. 

To counteract the attractions of the 
saloons, which get a large part of the 
weekly wages of so many, a free con- 
cert is given every Saturday night, after 
which there follows a temperance meet- 
ing until eleven o'clock, which is the 
hour for closing the saloons. 

Last year the entire expense for fuel, 

lights, janitor's service, pastor's salary, 
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FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

assistants, etc., apart from the contribu- 
tions of the Chapel, was only I3 180.42. 

The pastor writes : '' Many churches 
hesitate to undertake any institutional 
church methods for fear of the great 
expense involved. The success that has 
attended the introduction of new meth- 
ods at Morgan Chapel, and the small 
increase in the expenses of the work, 
may encourage others in similarly diffi- 
cult fields to venture in like directions." 

Audiences have greatly increased, and 
the membership of the church has been 
so enlarged that the augmented revenue 
therefrom nearly suffices to meet the 
expenses of the enlarged work. There 
were more conversions last year in Mor- 
gan Chapel than during any one of the 
previous fifty years of its history ; which 
is especially significant in view of the 
fact that during the same year the Meth- 
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RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

odist Church throughout the world lost 
upwards of 20,000 members. 

Having seen what can be done with a 
short purse as well as a long one, let us 
glance now at some of the exceptional 
features of various institutional churches. 

-y The Judson Memorial Church (Bap- 
tist), New York, has, in addition to the 
ordinary departments of a well-equipped 
institutional church, a temporary home 
for children. It has also an apartment- 
house, built in architectural harmony 
with the church, which yields $10,000 a 
year, as an income from a permanent 
endowment for its missionary, philan- 
thropic, and educational work. 

4 Trinity Church Parish (Protestant 
Episcopal), New York, controls nine 
churches, and for the work of these nine 
centers *' there are twenty-six ordained 
men, besides lay readers, secular teach- 
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FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

ers, deaconesses, and all manner of co- 
assistants." 

St. Georges (Protestant Episcopal), 
New York, is a great church full of man- 
ifold and fruitful activities. A Deaconess 
House is a part of its equipment. An 
exceptionally thorough Industrial Trade 
School affords a three years' course in 
carpentry, drawing, printing, plumbing, 
and manual training. The number of 
scholars enrolled is 297. A seaside 
cottage at Rockaway Park, L. I., gave 
an outing last summer to 5770 adults 
and 5964 children. The church runs a 
special car out to Rockaway early in the 
morning, five days in the week, during 
the heat of the summer, and back to the 
city in time to enable the mothers to 
cook supper for husbands and 
sons. 

More than one-half of the people con- 

65 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

nected with this church live in tenement- 
houses. 

The Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, 
New York, has a Day Nursery and 
Kindergarten which reports for the year 
an aggregate attendance of 6997. The 
Fresh Air work of the church provides 
for a two weeks' outing at *' Old Oak 
Farm," where 250 children are enter- 
tained at a time. 

Grace Church (Protestant Episcopal), 
New York, has in its corps of assistants 
deaconesses who make upwards of 6000 
calls in a year, also a trained nurse. 
The Houses of Anna and Simeon, 
homes for aged people, the House of 
the Holy Child, a shelter for children, 
and a hospital are among the beneficent 
institutions of this church. A somewhat 
exceptional provision for helping the 
needy to help themselves is the Parish 
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FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

Laundry. A weekly average of 37 
women, and altogether 140 different 
women, were employed during the 
year. They laundered 2 2 1 ,400 articles. 
The revenue, besides paying working 
expenses and providing for the im- 
provement of the plant, yielded a hand- 
some sum for benevolence. 

The Church of the Ascension (Protes- 
tant Episcopal), New York, in its chari- 
table department provides a parish phy- 
sician, a parish pharmacist, and legal aid 
for the poor. In addition to ordinary 
educational methods it arranges excur- 
sions to art galleries, factories, museums, 
etc. 

The Pro-Cathedral (Protestant Epis- 
copal), New York, is in the most crowd- 
ed district in the world. The vicar esti- 
mates that within one hundred yards of 
his study there are 10,000 people. The 
67 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

most exceptional feature of the Pro- 
Cathedral is the fact that its band of 
clergy, deaconesses, laymen, and lay- 
women occupy a tenement-house in the 
midst of the people whom they serve, 
thus constituting a church settlement. 
\ !} The Marcy Avenue Baptist Church, 
Brooklyn, has a library open every day 
in the week except Sunday. This 
church organized the second Sunday- 
school Kindergarten in existence. 

The Jersey City Tabernacle (Congre- 
gational) makes a specialty of recreation 
and furnishes some thirty different forms 
of outdoor sports. 

The Baptist Temple, Philadelphia, has 
a hospital, The Samaritan, where over 
6000 cases have been treated in a sin- 
gle year. The most exceptional work 
of this church, however, is educational. 

The Temple College is unique. Its 
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FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

catalogue states that " it includes courses 
from the kindergarten grades up to the 
highest college grades, besides the Law 
School and the Theological Seminary " 
—thirty-two courses in all. These 
courses are given to the young people 
of the city at a nominal fee, and at hours 
convenient for those who may be em- 
ployed day or night. The number of 
students reported for the year 1897-98 
was 3545, not including those attending 
public lectures, who raised the total to 

7395. 

Westminster Presbyterian Church, 
Buffalo, has a social settlement with 
eight resident and eighty non-resident 
workers. During the past year the resi- 
dents have made upwards of 4000 calls 
on their neighbors and received 2800 
calls from them. The usual work of the 
social settlement is successfully prose- 
69 



1 s 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

cuted. The church also has a Diet 
Kitchen. 

Most institutional churches occupy 
buildings intended originally for pur- 
poses of worship only, which are ill 
adapted to modern methods. Pilgrim 
Church (Congregational), Cleveland, so 
far as the writer knows, was the first to 
embody the institutional idea in a build- 
ing beautifully adapted to the new 
needs. The church membership doubled 
in five years. 

In Elyria, Ohio, there is a church (the 
First Congregational) together with a 
Young Men's Christian Association 
under the same roof. This unique ar- 
rangement has thus far developed no 
friction with the other churches. 

The Fourth Avenue Baptist Church, 

of Pittsburg, Penn., has a visiting nurse. 

Total number of visits made by her in 
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FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

three years, 7787 ; number of patients 
nursed through various sicknesses, 747. 
Of these, 43 were cases of typhoid 
fever, and 54 were cases of pneumonia. 
She secured the admission of 116 
persons to the city hospitals, and 10 to 
the city home. 

This church has a Deaf Department 
and a Red Cross Auxiliary. It has also 
perhaps the only Toy Mission in the 
world, whose object is to bring gladness 
into the lives of poor children at Christ- 
mas-time by furnishing them with sec- 
ond-hand toys. The first year, 25 
children were cared for ; the next, 
200 ; the next, 1 600 ; and the fourth 
year, 3600, when over 600 people par- 
ticipated in the work, and twenty-five 
institutions in Pittsburg and Allegheny 
shared the gifts. 

One of the children's rooms in the 
71 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

church is hung round about with copies 
of Tissot s pictures. 

St. Stephen's Mission, St. Louis, Mo., 
is exceptional in being under diocesan 
instead of parochial control. It is a 
church settlement doing the ordinary 
social-settlement work, with a Christian 
purpose which is frankly avowed. 

In the basement of the building are 
clothing department, kitchen and laun- 
dry (for classes in domestic economy), 
gymnasium and baths, vacation play- 
room and boys' library. On the first 
floor is the main auditorium (for lectures, 
concerts, and Sunday services), flanked 
on the west by a chapel for daily wor- 
ship, and on the east by a room of the 
same size as the chapel. Rolling parti- 
tions permit either individual or common 
use of these three rooms. The total 

seating capacity is 600. There are also 
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FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

on this floor the sacristy and choir-room, 
the men's club and library, living-rooms 
for the resident head of the settlement 
work, and women's bath and toilet-room. 
On the second floor is a five-room dwell- 
ing for the pastor and family, together 
with a roof- garden. The cost of the 
building was $16,000. 
' St. Luke's Church (Protestant Epis- 
copal), Orlando, Fla., has a hospital, 
which is for all classes. The only ques- 
tions asked are, " Are you sick? " '' Are 
you destitute ? " 

' The Ninth Street Baptist Church, Cin- 
cinnati, is quite exceptional in the fact 
that it has seven chapels, at each of 
which it carries on institutional work. 
Its nine buildings (including church and 
parish-house) are kept open day and 
night, and in them are held over eighty 
different services every week, one of 
73 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

which is for deaf-mutes. These nine 
buildings have a seating capacity of 
4000. 

Over 800 girls attend their seven sew- 
ing-schools. There are eight classes in 
which about 500 boys and girls receive 
free lessons in singing during the winter. 

There is a gymnasium for women, as 
well as one for men and boys. 

They send medicines, physicians, 
nurses, flowers, and fruit to the needy 
sick. They have also a hospital corps 
and an ice -water fountain. 

The pastor writes : '* We believe that 
our institutional methods have induced 
multitudes to attend our church and 
seven chapels." He usually preaches to 
1000 or 1200 people Sunday nights, 
while the church sustains, at the same 
hour, six other preaching services. The 
church has 1 700 members ; and has re- 
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FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

ceived 1161 in seven years, 868 of these 
on confession of faith. 

To illustrate the practicability of the 
institutional church in the village, it may 
be well to dwell a moment on the work 
of the Union Church (Congregational) 
at North Brookfield, Mass. There are 
less than 2500 Protestants in the town, 
and they are divided among three 
churches. 

When the new methods were inaugu- 
rated between eight and nine years ago, 
the Union Church was about thirty-five 
years old, and much overshadowed by 
its flourishing mother-church of the same 
denomination just across the street, 
which had a membership more than 
three times as large. 

The conditions under which the new 
work was begun were extremely dis- 
couraging, but the new pastor recognized 
75 



1^0 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the opportunity which awaits the right 
man in almost every village where in- 
stitutional work has not already been in- 
augurated. 

After several months of preaching, 
which prepared the way, an invitation 
was given to all voters to meet in the 
vestry of the church to discuss the inter- 
ests of the community. The result was 
the organization of '' The Enterprise 
Club," which met fortnightly in the 
church vestry to discuss the general wel- 
fare. " Among the subjects especially 
emphasized were the municipal owner- 
ship and control of public works, good 
roads, music in the public schools, elec- 
tric lights, a system of water- works for 
the village, and public spirit on the part 
of those with money and no children." 

Eight or nine boys were organized 
into ''The Union League" for " mental, 

76 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

moral, and physical culture." Soon after 
a club of girls was formed, under the 
name of '' The Guild of the Helping 
Hand." '' The Manse Literary Club " 
was organized under the direction of the 
pastor's wife, for young women. A His- 
torical Society was formed, including the 
whole region, which is exceptionally rich 
in Indian and colonial history. This so- 
ciety now has nearly 600 members, and 
its meetings are of lively interest. 

Four years after the first club was 
formed, music had been introduced into 
the public school ; the town had put in 
a system of water- works, costing some 
$200,000 ; childless people had erected a 
building for a free public library and 
reading-room at a cost of about $40,000 ; 
and a memorial church, costing over 
$60,000, had been built, especially adapt- 
ed to institutional methods. The gym- 
77 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

nasium connected with the new church 
building is one of the most complete in 
all that region. 

A night-school, in which seven differ- 
ent nationalities were instructed in ten 
different branches, was so successful as 
to outgrow the church parlors and take 
possession of the high-school building. 
The teachers and superintendent gave 
their services. 

It has been found necessary in the 
work of the church to rely almost wholly 
on local talent and volunteer service ; 
and this will prove generally true in 
country communities. More of such 
talent, however, can be found and util- 
ized than might be supposed. 

The pastor of the Union Church 
writes : '' The financial question is al- 
ways the great bugbear; but in the 

Union Church it has been found no more 
78 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

difficult to raise the few hundreds addi- 
tional required for heat and janitor's ser- 
vice to keep the building open and warm 
all the week than it was to keep the old 
church going along the old lines." 

There are other instances of the suc- 
cessful application of institutional meth- 
ods in small communities. 

As the value of these methods is rec- 
ognized, they are gradually being adopt- 
ed by churches which would not think 
of calling themselves institutional. Thus 
in the Boroughs of Manhattan and the 
Bronx, New York, out of 488 Protestant 
churches, 1 1 2 are engaged in one or 
more forms of institutional church work.* 

* Out of 56 synagogues, four report one reading- 
room, one library, three kindergartens, one indus- 
trial school and two day-nurseries. Out of 103 
Roman Catholic Churches, eight report two read- 
ing-rooms, eight libraries, two athletic unions, two 
kindergartens, and one day-nursery. 

Repeated efforts have failed to elicit any infor- 

79 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

An analysis of these activities may be 
of interest. 

Five churches are engaged in settle- 
ment work, thirty-two in fresh air work, 
one has a bowling-alley, two have ath- 
letic clubs, one has a billiard-room, five 
have societies to provide rational amuse- 
ment, seven have baths, two have swim- 
ming baths, seven have gymnastic 
classes, and eighteen have gymnasiums. 
Eight churches have dispensaries, two 
have dispensaries and clinics, one has a 
medical aid society and two have hos- 
pitals. Two have loan associations, two 
have wood yards, two have coal clubs, 
twenty -one have employment societies, 
twenty-seven have penny provident 
banks, four have lodging houses, seven- 

mation as to what the Roman Catholic Church is 
doing throughout the United States in behalf of 
social betterment. 

?0 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

teen have day -nurseries, one has an ice- 
water fountain, one has a soup booth, 
three have coffee booths, four have 
flower missions, three have flower and 
fruit missions, one has a legal aid so- 
ciety and one a civic club. One church 
has a trade school, one has a laundry 
school, two have night-schools, three 
have manual training-schools, ten have 
cooking schools, ten have kitchen gar- 
dens, forty have kindergartens, forty-four 
have sewing schools, forty-eight have 
industrial schools, twenty have libraries, 
and twenty-five have reading-rooms. 

Thus 1 1 2 churches are employing 
these 397 agencies for social betterment 
— forty-one more than were employed in 
the year before. 

The question arises as to the relative 
effectiveness of these new methods, com- 
pared with the old. It is significant that 
8i 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the denomination in New York which is 
using institutional methods far more com- 
monly than any other is growing far more 
rapidly than any other, and that in this 
denomination the churches which are 
/ growing fastest are institutional. Thus 
of the 1 1 2 churches referred to above as 
using one or more of these institutional 
agencies, the Episcopal denomination 
furnishes forty-two, and eighteen other 
denominations furnish seventy. In 
the Episcopal denomination, the three 
great institutional churches, St. Bartholo- 
mew's, Grace, and St. George's, made 
the largest growth last year. Speaking 
broadly, the churches in New York City 
which are doing most for social better- 
ment are growing most rapidly. 

Of course many and complex causes 
operate to increase or diminish church 

membership, but taking a large number 
82 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

of churches together, their growth will 
measure with approximate accuracy their 
adaptation to existing conditions and the 
effectiveness of their methods. 

Let us then take an entire denomina- 
tion and compare the churches which are 
institutional with those which are not. 
The comparison shall relate to spiritual 
results, which many believe should be 
the sole aim of the church, and which 
many fear will suffer by the recognition, 
on the part of the church, of physical and 
social needs. 

Of course there are no statistical meas- 
ures of spiritual values. The best practi- 
cable measure of the spiritual work of a 
church is found in the number of additions 
to its communion on confession of faith ; 
and to this point our comparison shall be 
confined. Such a comparison, be it said, 
is hardly fair to the institutional churches, 
83 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

because they are generally located in the 
hardest fields, where the old line churches 
have utterly failed, many having died and 
others having run away to save their lives. 

Again, it should be said that such a 
comparison at the present time would 
not be scientific, because the so-called 
" family " church is shading into the insti- 
tutional. As we have seen, the success of 
these methods is leading many churches* 
which would not be classified as institu- 
tional, to adopt one or more institutional 
methods. 

We will, therefore, go back a half 
dozen years, when the line of demarca- 
tion between the two types was more 
distinct. The Congregational denomi- 
nation is chosen, partly because, at that 
time, it had perhaps more institutional 
churches than any other, and partly be- 
cause its data are more available. 
84 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

We find on examination that the aver- 
age Congregational institutional church 
had precisely six times as many additions 
on confession of faith as the average 
church of the denomination, while all 
that was accomplished by the former in 
behalf of cleaner and healthier bodies, 
better informed minds, and a more whole- 
some social and civil life was a bonus, 
over against which the old line churches 
had nothing to show. 

The Miami Association of Ohio, which 
includes the Baptist churches of Cincin- 
nati and vicinity, affords data for .an 
instructive comparison of the effect- 
iveness of the old methods and the 
new. 

The Association embraces twenty- 
three churches, two of which, the Ninth 
Street and the Lincoln Park, are institu- 
tional ; the remaining twenty- one follow 
85 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the old lines of work. These two insti- 
tutional churches, being '' down town," 
are subject to all the disadvantageous 
conditions which have either killed or 
driven away so many churches that ad- 
hered to the old methods. It should be re- 
marked in this connection that the ** down 
town " districts of Cincinnati are peculiarly 
difficult to cultivate. Probably no city 
in the United States affords stonier 
ground. But notwithstanding the un- 
equal conditions, out of 325 additions to 
the twenty-three churches, on confession 
of faith, last year, 209 were received by 
these two churches which have adopted 
new methods. 

So far as numerical strength is con- 
cerned, three churches stood still and 
eleven lost, in the aggregate, ninety-four 
more than they gained. The remaining 

nine gained 271 members more than 
86 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

they lost, making the total gain of the 
Association 177. 

The gains of the two institutional 
churches were 1 8 1 more than their losses, 
which are always heavy by reason of 
many removals to the suburbs. It ap- 
pears, therefore, that without these two 
churches, the membership of the Asso- 
ciation would have been smaller by four 
at the end of the year than it was at the 
beginning. 

But we cannot judge of the exact 
value of these figures without a compari- 
son of percentages. The membership 
of these two churches is thirty-seven per 
cent, of the entire Association member- 
ship. Their church property is thirty- 
five per cent, of the church property of 
the Association ; and it should be added 
that the membership of neither of the 
two is as wealthy as that of several of 
87 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the other churches. Their home ex- 
penses for the year, not including ex- 
penditures for improvements and repairs, 
were twenty-seven per cent, of the home 
expenses of the Association. The addi- 
tions to these two churches by baptism 
were sixty-four per cent, of all the 
additions by baptism to the churches of 
the Association ; and their gains above 
all losses were sixty-six per cent, of the 
Association gains. 

Of course an extraordinary personality 
may produce extraordinary results along 
the old lines of work. But the results 
are due to the personality rather than to 
the methods, whereas the results which 
accompany the new methods are evi- 
dently due to the methods themselves ; 
and as the methods are capable of gen- 
eral adoption, so the results are capable 

of indefinite multiplication. 
88 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

A marked advantage of the newer 
methods is that their great variety makes 
it possible to utilize a much larger num- 
ber of volunteer workers. If spiritual 
results are the only aim of the church, 
only a small proportion of the member- 
ship will be deemed sufficiently skilled 
to engage in such delicate and difficult 
work. The great majority of the church, 
therefore, leave its work to its salaried 
officials who have been specially trained 
for it. But in the institutional church, 
which is interested in the entire circle of 
human life, almost every kind of valua- 
ble knowledge and skill may be utilized. 
The mechanic, who could never lead a 
meeting, or '' speak to edification," and 
who perhaps is ever dumb on the sub- 
ject of religion, is glad to instruct a class 
of young fellows in carpentry or forging. 
Many who, like Humboldt, think they 
89 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

have *' no talent for religion " are both 
able and glad to do a thousand things 
helpfully related to every- day life ; and 
doing these things for the church and in 
the name of the Masters cultivates their 
religious life, and tends to inspire their 
every-day activities with the religious 
motive. Thus the institutional church 
naturally becomes a hive of activity, 
which is as conducive to spiritual health 
as to numerical growth. 

2. Organized Denominational Effort 
for Social Betterment, 

Such effort is carried on, for the most 
part, in connection with schools and col- 
leges. 

The Baptists have twenty-six schools 

among the colored people, which have 

an enrollment of 4755 students of both 
90 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

sexes, 1 614 of whom receive systematic 
instruction in some line of industrial 
work. Including what the negroes 
themselves contributed, there was ex- 
pended on these schools in 1897-98 the 
sum of 1236,910. 

At Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C, 
students in manual training and carpen- 
try are taught the use and care of a 
great variety of tools and the principles 
which underlie their use. Instruction is 
given in woodwork, ironwork, drawing, 
and architecture, housekeeping, sewing, 
and cooking. 

At Spelman Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., 
all boarders are required to learn house- 
keeping in all its branches. The time of 
ten teachers is mainly devoted to this 
object. Every pupil is required also to 
learn plain sewing. There are courses 
in millinery, printing, and dressmaking, 
91 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

and two courses in nursing, non-profes- 
sional and professional. 
\j The Congregationalists have seventy- 
six schools for colored children and 
youths, of which twenty-six are common 
schools, forty-five are normal and graded 
schools,and five are chartered institutions. 

The total number of students in these 
schools is 12,428. 

The college at Talladega, Ala., has a 
farm of 300 acres ; that at Tougaloo, 
Miss., one of 600, and the school at En- 
field, N. C, one of more than 1000 
acres. 

At these institutions scientific and 
practical instruction in agriculture, horti- 
culture and cattle-praising is given. Wood- 
work, ironwork, printing, architectural 
drawing, the domestic sciences and nurs- 
ing, are also taught. 

•y' The Congregationalists have six In- 

92 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

dian schools, with 368 pupils. Lessons 
are given in blacksmithing, carpentry, 
printing, farming, cooking, nursing, sew- 
ing, and housekeeping. 

On its work among the negroes, In- 
dians, Chinese, and Mountain Whites, 
which is in large measure industrial, the 
denomination expended last year about 
1300,000. 
\/ The Methodists find that in all their 
schools the greatest demand is for en- 
larged facilities for manual training. The 
total number of students in their indus- 
trial schools is 2640, most of whom are 
colored. These receive instruction in 
shoemaking, wagonmaking, cabinetmak- 
ing, baking, tinning, painting, farming, 
ironworking, blacksmithing, stonecutting, 
laundering, printing, and carpentry ; also 
in millinery, dressmaking, cooking, 
housekeeping, and sewing. 
93 



V 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 



The organized work of the Methodists 
in behalf of social betterment is not con- 
fine d to their industrial schools. At the 
seaports of Boston, New York, and Phil- 
adelphia they have established homes for 
immigrants. Temporary help is afforded, 
many lodgings are provided, thousands 
of meals are furnished, situations are 
often found, young women are guarded 
and forwarded to their friends, the sick 
are cared for, and much good reading- 
matter is distributed. 

The same spirit of practical helpfulness 
is shown in the homes established in in- 
land cities also. 

Deaconess' Homes, in addition to the 
above, are now found in many cities. 
Besides aiding pastors in distinctly relig- 
ious work, the deaconesses give indus- 
trial training, conduct kindergartens, 
nurse the sick and teach hygiene. 
94 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

It may be added in this connection 
that the number of deaconesses is in- 
creasing, not only among the Metho- 
dists, but also among Episcopalians and 
Lutherans. 
yj The Presbyterians are sustaining 
among the negroes sixty-two day-schools, 
in which there are 8109 pupils, one uni- 
versity, eight academies, five seminaries 
for females, and twelve co- educational 
schools. There is more or less industrial 
training given. They expended for the 
freedmen last year #132,578. 

They have also eight industrial schools 
among the Indians, and thirty schools, 
day, boarding, and industrial, among the 
mountaineers of the South. 
w The Episcopalians have fifteen indus- 
trial schools among the colored people of 
the South, with an enrollment of 1092 
pupils. Two of these institutions are 
95 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

worthy of special mention, St. Augus- 
tine's School at Raleigh, N. C, and St. 
Paul's School at Lawrenceville, Virginia. 
The former had last year 317 pupils. 
The property includes 1 1 1 acres, on 
which there are seven buildings. The 
girls are instructed in sewing, dressmak- 
ing, and cooking. The young men are 
trained as carpenters, bricklayers, stone- 
masons, and tinners. There is connected 
with the institution a hospital, together 
with a training-school for nurses. 

St. Paul's School had 310 pupils last 
year. The girls are trained in the do- 
mestic arts, and for the industrial training 
of men and boys there are the following 
departments : cabinetmaking, black- 
smith shop, wheelwright shop, printing 
office, shoemaking, plastering, saw-mill, 
carpenter shop, brickyard, farm, and 
dairy. The farm has 197 acres, and is 

96 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

in charge of a farmer, who has both a 
theoretical and practical knowledge of 
agriculture. The industrial department 
of this school is largely self-supporting. 

The Episcopal Church has work 
among the Indians in twelve states and 
territories. This work recognizes physi- 
cal as well as spiritual needs. 

This church also reaches out a helping 
hand to girls and young women by 
means of the Girls' Friendly Society. 
The society originated in England in 
1875. The first branch in America was 
formed two years later. The organiza- 
tion now extends to many countries, and 
includes nearly 300,000 members, of 
whom more than 2 1 ,000 are in the Uni- 
ted States. 

Its objects are : " To bind together in 
one society, churchwomen as associates 
and girls and young women as members, 
97 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

for mutual help (religious and secular), 
for sympathy and prayer. 2. To en- 
courage purity of life, dutifulness to pa- 
rents, faithfulness to employers, and 
thrift. 3. To provide the privileges of 
the society for its members, wherever 
they may be, by giving them an intro- 
duction from one branch to another." 

Members of the society receive train- 
ing, industrial, domestic, and literary, 
and are taught the care of their health. 

Six Diocesan Branches have Holiday 
Houses, whose privileges are shared 
alike by associates, who must belong to 
the Episcopal Church, and members, 
who may be of any creed. 

The interest of the Episcopal Church 
in industrial betterment was shown by 
the organization of C AIL. 
""sj The Church Association for the Ad- 
vancement of the Interests of Labor wa§ 
98 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

founded in the city of New York, May, 
1887. The Right Reverend F. D. 
Huntington, Bishop of Central New 
York, is President, and Right Reverend 
Henry C. Potter, Bishop of New York, 
together with others, constitute the board 
of Vice-Presidents. The secretary is 
Miss Harriette Keyser. 

The CAIL, as they shorten their title, 
believe that the clergy and laity of the 
church should become personally inter- 
ested in the problems of the day, and 
should inform themselves of the nature 
of the issues presented, so that they may 
be prepared to act as the exigency of the 
situation may demand. 

The association sets forth the follow- 
ing principles and methods of work for 
its members : 

Principles. — '' i. It is the essence of 

the teachings of Jesus Christ that God is 

99 

LofC. 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the Father of all men, and that all men 
are brothers. 

*' 2. God is the sole possessor of 
the earth and its fullness ; man is but 
the steward of God's bounty. 

'' 3. Labor being the exercise of body, 
mind, and spirit, in the broadening and 
elevating of human life, it is the duty of 
every man to labor diligently. 

'' 4. Labor, as thus defined, should be 
the standard of social worth. 

*' 5. When the divinely intended op- 
portunity to labor is given to all men, one 
great cause of the present widespread 
suffering and destitution will be removed. 

'' Methods.— I, Prayer. 

** 2. Sermons, setting forth the teach- 
ings of the gospel as the guide to the 
solution of every question involved in 
the interests of labor. 

*' 3. The proper use of the press and 
100 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

the circulation of tracts as occasion may 
require. 

"4. Lectures and addresses on occa- 
sion when the interests of labor may be 
advanced. 

** 5. The encouragement by precept 
and example of a conscientious and 
proper use of the ballot." 

The association, while advising and 
advocating the organization of labor in 
trade-unions, is equally willing to aid un- 
organized labor in its legitimate struggles. 
It believes in the efficacy of just and 
humane legislation for the benefit of 
labor, and gladly joins in every attempt 
to secure such legislation or enforce labor 
laws already on the statute-books. 

In 1893 it was successful in establish- 
ing a permanent Board of Conciliation 
and Arbitration, under the chairmanship 
of Bishop Potter. It has also aided in 

lOI 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

efforts to minimize the evils of the sweat- 
ing system and the tenement-house 
abuses. It assists factory and workshop 
inspection, both by state officials and by 
its own officers. 

In 1899 a special organization, known 
as the '' Actors' Church Alliance," was 
promoted by the CAIL, with the object 
of aiding the theatrical profession in their 
struggle against being compelled to work 
seven days in the week, as well as to im- 
prove the standing and condition of the 
profession. The '' Hammer and Pen " is 
the monthly organ of the association. 

As we have seen, the greater part of 

the organized denominational work for 

social betterment is in behalf of negroes 

and Indians. Attempts to elevate them 

soon revealed the necessity of improving 

their material condition. Late slaves 

and savages needed something in ad- 
102 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

dition to moral and intellectual training, 
if they were to know how to live ; and 
that additional training the churches are 
gladly giving. 

There are multitudes in our great cit- 
ies equally ignorant of the laws of life, 
equally incapable of wholesome living. 
The question naturally arises, why not 
provide needed training for <3^// who need 
it, white as well as black and red ? 
What the denominations are doing for 
negroes and Indians is a recognition of 
the principle that the churches are con- 
cerned with the social well-being of men. 
Doubtless the time will come when they 
will make a consistent application of that 
principle. The Deaconess' Homes, the 
Girls' Friendly Societies, and the Immi- 
grants* Homes, referred to above, which 
are carried on, not by individual Chris- 
tian endeavor, but by organized denom- 
103 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

inational effort, are a step in that direc- 
tion. 

3. The Young Mens Christian Asso- 
ciation. 

The redistribution of population dur- 
ing the nineteenth century has been 
marked by an extraordinary exodus of 
young men from the farms and their 
concentration in cities. The industrial, 
social, and moral changes involved 
therein created new necessities, which 
opened a wide door of opportunity to 
the Young Men's Christian Association. 

Formed in the United States about 
the middle of the century, the associa- 
tions did not discover and clearly define 
their proper sphere for twenty years or 
more. During this experimental period 
they undertook precisely the same work 

that active churches were doing, and by 
104 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

the same old methods. They organized 
evening and mission Sunday-schools, 
they engaged in city mission visitation, 
and tract distribution, and held gospel 
meetings in hospitals, almshouses, and 
homes for the aged. Apart from read- 
ing-rooms and a few libraries, they rec- 
ognized no needs except spiritual. They 
had not learned to confine their efforts 
to young men, nor had they developed 
new methods of work. 

It is significant that after nearly twenty 
years of such efforts, the associations had 
not twenty general secretaries, had 
erected no buildings, and had acquired 
no permanent property. Success was 
still problematical ; the organization was 
still on trial. 

In 1870 it was an open question 
whether or no the efforts of the associa- 
tions should be confined to young men, 
105 



V 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

and whether they should include what 
was known as the " fourfold " work — 
spiritual, intellectual, physical, and social. 

The very marked success of those as- 
sociations which adopted this new policy, 
as compared with those which rejected 
it, soon demonstrated its superior wis- 
dom. Those states in which this policy 
prevailed multiplied local associations, 
erected buildings, and secured general 
secretaries. In other states, the organi- 
zation made little progress until the new 
policy was adopted, which change was 
at once attended with the same success 
that had followed the new methods else- 
where. 

New England, for example, was slow 

to accept the change of policy, and as 

late as 1877, almost a generation after 

the organization of the movement, these 

six states could boast only five paid sec- 
106 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

retaries and a single association building. 
By 1880, however, the ** fourfold" work 
had been generally adopted, and only 
ten years later New England had 22 
association buildings, and 127 secretaries 
and other paid officers, while the annual 
expenditure of 146,000 in 1877 had risen 
to $233,000 in 1890. Thus the success 
of the association was evidently condi- 
tioned on the recognition of the entire 
man and the shaping of methods accord- 
ingly. 

Since 1880 the growth of the associa- 
tion has been both rapid and solid. At 
the present time (1900) it has in North 
America 1429 local associations. Of 
these, 1233 report 228,568 members. 
There are nearly 400 buildings, which 
are valued at more than $20,000,000 ; 
and the number of salaried officers is 

1275- 

107 



/ 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

The varied and comprehensive work 
of the association has its source and 
governing head in the International 
Committee, which has its headquarters 
and a working quorum in New York. 
It is composed of 45 members, who rep- 
resent all parts of the country. 

Of the ** fourfold " work which now en- 
gages every association, the religious is 
first in importance. The young men s 
meeting, usually held Sunday afternoon, 
is conspicuous among religious agencies. 
Last year 60,000 such meetings were 
held, with a total attendance of over two 
and a half millions. 

Educational work is being prosecuted 

more and more in evening schools, 

which now engage 1200 teachers, and 

give instruction to 25,000 different 

young men. There are 25 standard 

courses of study, and 50 studies are 
108 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

taught. Nearly looo associations have 
reading-rooms, and 800 have Hbraries 
with half a million volumes. Lectures, 
practical talks, literary clubs, and debat- 
ing societies supplement the educational 
work. 

The aim in physical training is not to 
develop record-breaking athletes, but by 
a system of all-round training to pro- 
duce symmetrical bodies and vigorous 
health. In addition to gymnastic work, 
there are outdoor athletics, cycling, boat- 
ing, swimming, and rambling, all under 
trained instructors. 

Socially, the association aims to afford 
good companionship, healthful recrea- 
tion and rational entertainments. The 
rooms are made attractive and homelike, 
and are supplied with music and games. 

Practical service is rendered by the 

employment bureaus, 338 of which last 
109 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

year report more than 13,000 situations 
secured. 

Many thousands of calls on the sick 
are made, and considerable relief- work 
done,, which, however, is confined to 
young men. The Bowery branch of the 
New York association reports 34,799 
lodgings and 100,450 meals given in a 
single year. 

Special efforts are made in behalf of 
different classes of young men, commer- 
cial travelers, lumbermen, miners, mill- 
men, firemen, immigrants, soldiers, sail- 
ors, college students, and railroad men. 
There are 65 associations for the colored 
young men of the South, and 50 for the 
Indians. 

The present work for railroad men 

began in 1872. There are now 151 

railroad associations, with a membership 

of 32,000. These associations provide 
no 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

special agencies, in addition to those 
usually afforded, such as rest-rooms, 
lunch-counter, temporary hospital, and 
instruction in first aid to the injured. 
These associations are " homes away 
from home." 

The value of this work is shown by 
the fact that the railways make an annual 
appropriation to it of over $175,000, 
which does not include large sums given 
for buildings. The United States Inter- 
state Commerce Commission character- 
izes it as ''a work commending itself 
even on the most practical grounds of 
pecuniary self-interest." 

The present intercollegiate movement 
began in 1877. There are now 550 stu- 
dent associations, having upwards of 
30,000 members. Since its inception 23 
years ago, this movement has led be- 
tween 35,000 and 40,000 students into 
III 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the Christian life, and more than 5000 
into the Christian ministry. 

From this branch of the work have 
sprung many important outgrowths ; 
among them, the Student Volunteer 
Movement, through which not less than 
1600 have already entered the foreign 
missionary field ; also the World s Stu- 
dent Christian Federation, which was 
organized in 1895, ^^^ which brings into 
cooperative relations the Christian stu- 
dents of eleven national and international 
organizations. 

On the outbreak of the Spanish- Amer- 
ican war, the International Committee 
were quick to recognize a new opportu- 
nity, and within 60 days there were 60 
trained secretaries among the soldiers, 
each with an association tent and a good 
equipment of books, magazines, home 

papers, music, games, conveniences for 
112 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

letter-writing and the like ; and before 
the close of the war there were 175 such 
secretaries in the field. 

A well-organized work is being carried 
on in the navy, and auxiliary associa- 
tions are being formed on many of the 
United States warships. A fine building 
is being erected near the Brooklyn Navy 
Yard.* 

4. The Young Women s Christian As- 
sociation 

With the incoming of machinery 
many industries passed, one after an- 
other, from the home to the factory. If 
the industrial revolution drew the farm- 
er's son to the city, it no less surely at- 
tracted his daughter also. 

* For further information see the monograph in 
this series devoted to the Young Men's Christian 
Association, to which the writer is indebted for 
many facts. 

113 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

Losing the old employments of the 
home, young women knocked at many 
doors heretofore closed to them. The 
professions, the shops, and a great vari- 
ety of industries were gradually opened 
to them, and they, like their brothers, 
flocked to the cities. But their work in 
the factory, or office, or behind the 
counter, is done under conditions very 
different from those which prevailed in 
the home. There they had done a hun- 
dred different things, which had afforded 
variety to life, and training to the whole 
body. Moreover, their work had been 
done under the parental eye, and they 
were safe-guarded by the home influ- 
ence. 

In the city their work, if not really un- 
sanitary, is much more confined. They 
probably do one thing over and over 

again, which is unfavorable both to men- 
114 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

tal and physical development. Their 
employment forces upon them associa- 
tions which may be neither agreeable 
nor wholesome. They crave society. 
They are exposed to many temptations. 

Such needs — moral, intellectual, phys- 
ical, and social — on the part of many 
thousands of young women constituted 
the opportunity of the Young Women's 
Christian Association. 

There are two organizations, one 
under the direction of the International 
Board of Women and Young Women's 
Christian Association ; the other is a 
more recent organization, whose man- 
agement is vested in a board of man- 
agers known as the International Com- 
mittee. The associations of the former 
are organized in the cities and towns 
which offer business opportunities to 
girls in stores, offices, mills, and fac- 
115 



y 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

tories. The organizations of the latter 
are more commonly found in colleges 
and seminaries ; and dealing more with 
students, they are less concerned with 
social betterment. We shall, therefore, 
confine our attention to the original or- 
ganization, whose great object is to ben- 
efit working girls and working women. 

The oldest association was organized 
in 1857. The number of associations 
affiliated with the International Board is 
75. The basis of membership varies, 
but the managers and contributing mem- 
bers are not less than 75,000. The 
value of property and furnishings is 
about $5,000,000. Twenty-two States 
and Canada are represented in the In- 
ternational Board. 

The departments of work are board- 
ing homes, vacation homes, restaurants, 

or lunch-rooms for women only, tran- 
116 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

sient accommodations, traveler's aid 
work, educational work and religious 
work. 

There are thirty-seven boarding 
homes, which accommodate at one time 
not less than 2800. Terms per week 
vary from $1.00 to I5.50. 

There are eleven vacation homes, 
which in the course of the summer re- 
ceive as many as 3000 guests. Terms 
are from |i.oo to I4.00 per week. 

There are ten restaurants or lunch- 
rooms for women only. Not less than 
500,000 meals are furnished in one year, 
at an average of eleven cents per meal. 

Transient accommodations (open day 
and night) were furnished during the 
year to over 200,000, at from 25 cents to 
$1.00. 

In this day of running to and fro in 
the earth, the department of traveler's 
117 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

aid is one of the most needed and help- 
ful. It sends association visitors to 
railroad stations and steamer landings, 
where they help, direct, and save thou- 
sands of young women. 

The educational department affords 
industrial, commercial, elementary, do- 
mestic, and physical training. Over 
50,000 have received instruction during 
the year. 

In illustration of this department, glance 
at the educational work of the Brooklyn 
Association. It furnishes two courses in 
white sewing, six courses in dressmaking, 
five courses in millinery, four courses be- 
sides a normal course in cooking, a course 
in laundry work and one in nursing. In 
its commercial department it has 18 day 
courses and nine evening courses. It 
also furnishes instruction in German, 

French, art embroidery, and in singing. 
118 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

Of course the library and reading-room 
are important auxiliaries in educational 
work. The New York Association has 
a library of 27,000 volumes, which last 
year reached a circulation of 84,414. 
One of the delightful features is a circu- 
lating library of music, consisting of some 
hundreds of volumes. 

The religious work includes Bible 
classes, Sunday services, King's Daugh- 
ters' Circles, prayer league, family prayer 
and noonday services. '' Religion," the 
president writes, " is the life, the inspira- 
tion, aspiration, and lever. It is instilled 
by precept and example and permeates 
every department." 

Associated with the International 

Board, there are also homes for children, 

for aged women, for aged couples, for 

invalids and incurables, and for blind girls, 

together with retreats and hospitals. 
119 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

5. The Salvation Army 

Doubtless the most remarkable phe- 
nomenon in the religious world during 
the last quarter of a century has been the 
rise and growth of the Salvation Army. 
Organized in the slums of London, with 
the outcasts of society for recruits, and as 
poor as the twelve apostles, it had the 
magnificenT: audacity to enter on a world- 
wide campaign ; and in less than twenty 
years it had gone " from New Zealand 
right round to San Francisco, and from 
Cape Town to Nordkoping." 
\i This success, wonderful under any cir- 
cumstances, was the more notable in that 
it was won with a class notoriously es- 
tranged from the churches, and hopelessly 
beyond their reach. Out of the moral 
morass of the slum, pestilential with vice 

and crime, have come healing waters of 
120 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

social salvation. Surely the age of mir- 
acles has returned — moral miracles — for 
the Bedouin of the city, whose hand was 
against every man, human hyenas, who 
pitilessly devoured their fellows, have 
been transformed into apostles and mar- 
tyrs, who are joyfully enduring privation 
and persecution that they may relieve 
misery and succor the perishing. 

The story of the Salvation Army is 
too well known to need rehearsal. After 
a brief statistical statement of its social 
work in the United States,* the writer 
will attempt to point out the fundamental 
causes of its success. 

There are in this country 700 corps 
and outposts, with 2600 officers and em- 
ployees ; 141 social relief institutions for 

* For these details I am indebted to Commander 
Booth-Tucker. For further particulasr see Mono- 
graph No. XX of this series. 
121 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

the poor, with accommodations for 6000. 
There are 11,000 open-air and indoor 
meetings held weekly, with an average 
attendance of 2,200,000. There are fifty- 
two shelters for men and women ; twenty- 
three cheap food depots ; nineteen sal- 
vage brigades and workshops for the 
unemployed ; eight labor bureaus ; three 
farm colonies, having 1800 acres of land. 
In these colonies are 200 men, women, 
and children. There are twenty slum 
posts with forty officers ; fourteen rescue 
homes for fallen women, with accommo 
dations for 360. A thousand girls have 
been helped permanently or temporarily. 
There are two children's homes for waifs 
and strays. The number of unpaid work- 
ers, most of them wearing the uniform, 
is 20,000. 

Such facts and figures represent a 

many-sided and far-reaching work for 
122 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

human betterment. Its primary object 

is not to relieve want and wretchedness. 

The supreme aim of the Army has ever 

been salvation, as its name implies — the 

carrying of the gospel to the churchless 

and Christless multitudes. Indeed, this 

was originally the sole aim of General 

and Mrs. Booth. Their object, therefore, 

was identical with the avowed object of 

the churches. The churches signally 

failed ; the Army as signally succeeded. 

It is worth while to lay one's finger on 

the causes of success and failure. 

A prominent official of the Army 

writes : '' The remarkable success of the 

Salvation Army cannot be attributed to 

any one thing exclusively, but to several, 

among which the following are the most 

important : i . The genius and godliness 

of its founder. 2. The soundness of its 

gospel teaching. 3. The invaluable as- 
123 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

sistance the founder of the Army re- 
ceived from his wife and their children. 
4. The wisdom of the methods em- 
ployed. 5. The divine origin of the 
movement." 

The personal equation is generally a 
large factor in any man's success. Be it 
far from the writer to depreciate the 
\{ genius and godliness of General Booth. 
Without these he could not have suc- 
ceeded. But thousands of his contem- 
poraries are no less godly, and apart 
from his choice of methods and his re- 
markable organizing and executive abil- 
ity, he has shown no genius peculiar to 
himself His interpretation of the gos- 
pel is not exceptional. His orthodoxy 
is common to many denominations. 
Undoubtedly the Army owes much to 
the family of the General, but the family 

relationship was incidental. Many other 
124 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

movements have failed that had no lack 
of able and devoted helpers. And as to 
the " divine origin " of the movement : 
no one, surely, would claim that it was 
any more divine in its origin than the 
church which was founded by Christ 
himself. 

Each of the above causes contributed, 
no doubt, to the success of the Army ; 
but no one of them, nor all of them 
together, can be said to account for that 
success. All of these, or like causes, 
have wrought together, within the 
churches, and without success. If we 
would learn why one attempt fails and 
another succeeds, we must ascertain what 
differentiates the one from the other. 

Change the methods of the Army, 
substitute for them the ordinary methods 
of the churches, and it would lose its dis- 
tinctive character and its unique power. 
125 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

It may be conceded that the Salvation- 
ists have a degree of faith and zeal, 
enthusiasm and self-sacrifice, which char- 
acterize no denomination in modern 
times ; but these virtues have shown 
with equal luster in many individuals 
without being accompanied by any such 
success as has attended the efforts of 
Salvationists. The peculiar causes, there- 
fore, of the Army's peculiar success must 
be looked for in its methods. 

The Salvation Army is a protest 
against the conventional methods of the 
churches. 

I. It is first of all aggressive. The 

churches ring the bell, open the door and 

say: '* Come and be taught." The 

Master said : '' Go teach." The Army 

waits for no one to come to it. Says 

General Booth : The foundation of all the 

Army's success, looked at apart from its 
126 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

divine source of strength, is its continued 
direct attack upon those whom it seeks 
to bring under the influence of the gos- 
pel. The Salvation Army officer, in- 
stead of standing upon some dignified 
pedestal, to describe the fallen condition 
of his fellow-men, in the hope that, 
though far from him, they may thus, by 
some mysterious process, come to a 
better life, goes down into the street, 
and from door to door, and from room to 
room, lays his hand on those who are 
spiritually sick, and leads them to the 
Almighty Healer." The Army thus 
makes nearly 3,000,000 visits from house 
to house in a single year. 

2. Having gone to " the masses," the 
Army adapts itself to them and to their 
tastes. It finds men not only locally but 
intellectually and socially and spiritually. 

It uses their language, their music, their 
127 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

methods of thought. In its Pauline 
adaptation, it is all things to all men. 

3. Going to men in such a spirit, the 
Army was sure to discover that they had 
bodies. The churches have, for hun- 
dreds of years, been preaching a gospel 
equally adapted to disembodied spirits. 
They have been seeking '' souls." And 
it was souls that General Booth was after, 
but he soon discovered that souls in- 
habit bodies, by which they are pro- 
foundly influenced, and through which 
alone, in many cases, they can be 
reached. 

4. Having recognized the value of the 
physical factor in the great human prob- 
lem, it was a natural and easy step to 
take environment into his reckoning ; and 
environment, which is commonly decisive 
in forming character, is precisely the factor 

which the churches commonly ignore. 
128 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

Thus by breaking away from conven- 
tionalities, and intelligently adapting 
means to ends, the evangelist naturally 
becomes the philanthropist. Nor did he 
cease to be an evangelist. With all the 
emphasis which General Booth has 
learned to lay on physical conditions, he 
has never by one whit underrated spirit- 
ual values. His philanthropy and his 
religion are as perfectly united as are 
soul and body. Hence the Christianity 
of the Army is thoroughly philanthropic, 
and its philanthropy is thoroughly Chris- 
tian. In this particular, as in the others 
enumerated, the Army made a wide de- 
parture from the churches, which have 
been careful to separate religion from 
philanthropy, and in so doing, they have 
put asunder what the Master joined to- 
together. 

No attempt has been made to point 
129 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

out all of the marked characteristics of 
the Salvation Army. The four enumer- 
ated above seem to the writer to be the 
ones which fundamentally differentiate 
the Army and its work from the churches 
and their efforts, and to account for the 
fact that it has succeeded where they 
have failed. 

Following these lines, the Army be- 
came a great power for social betterment 
Thus again it appears, as has been re- 
peatedly shown, that it is the religious or- 
ganization or movement which does most 
for social betterment, that accomplishes 
most for moral and spiritual renovation. 

This fact, well established, accounts 

for the lack of spiritual results which has 

so commonly characterized the work of 

the old line churches in recent years. 

Several of the leading denominations 

last year barely held their own. It 
130 



FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

has been inferred that " this is a period 
of spiritual decline." But there is no 
better gauge of the spiritual life of the 
churches than the missionary spirit, 
which is the essential spirit of Chris- 
tianity. That this spirit is by no means 
decadent was shown by the signal suc- 
cess of the Ecumenical Missionary Con- 
ference held in New York the present 
year. Nor is this the only convincing 
evidence that the missionary spirit is 
thoroughly vital. When in all the his- 
tory of the Christian church has there 
been such an outpouring of young life 
for missionary service as during recent 
years ? Since the Student Volunteer 
Movement began between 5000 and 
6000 young men and women have 
pledged themselves to missionary ser- 
vice, of whom no less than 1600 are al- 
ready in the foreign field. 
131 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 

This affords evidence of spiritual vital- 
ity which the fruitless ness of ill -adapted 
methods cannot counterbalance. The 
spiritual results which attend the various 
movements described in the preceding 
pages, indicate that there will be no lack 
of growth on the part of the churches as 
soon as they recognize their social mis- 
sion and adapt their methods to changed 

conditions. 

132 



INDEX. 

PAGE 

Arbitration, Board of loi 

Architecture, change taking place in church 25-28 

Ascension, Church of the, New York 67 

Athletic clubs 80 

Baptist schools for negroes 90-92 

Baptist Temple, Philadelphia 68 

Eascom, Pres. John, on kingdom of heaven 30 

Baths 61, 80 

Berkeley Temple 42, 51 

Billiard-room , 80 

Body and mind, interdependence of 16, 17 

Booth, General 123, 124, 126. 128, 129 

Bowling-alley 80 

Cail 98-102 

Cathedral, an expression of religious life 25, 26 

Change, nature of, in religious activities 10-13 

causes of. 14-24; results of 25-41 

Changes 9 

Church, old conception of business of 34, 35 

Churches drawn into closer relations by new 

methods 37-39 

Civilization, influence of new methods on 39-41 

passing from individualistic to social 

type 14-16 

Clinic 59, 80 

Coal clubs 80 

133 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Cofifee-booths. 8i 

Congregational churches, institutional and other, com- 
pared 83-85 

schools 92, 93 

Cooking-schools 8i 

Cooperation of churches for social betterment 38, 39 

Day-nurseries 81 

Deaconess Homes 94 

House 65 

Deaf, Department for the 71 

Diet-kitchen 70 

Dispensaries 80 

Drunkenness, causes of. 17 

Ecumenical missionary conference ■. 131 

Elyria Congregational Church 70 

Employment bureau 58, 61 

societies 80 

Episcopalian schools 95-97 

Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, New York 66 

Flower missions 81 

Fourth Avenue Baptist Church, Pittsburg 70 

Fresh-air work 57, 66, 80 

Fruit missions 81 

Girls' Friendly Society 97, 98 

Grace Church, New York 66, 82 

Gymnasium 74, 78, 80 

Handicraft, school of 61 

Holiday Houses 57 

Homes for the aged 66 

Hospitals 80 

Humboldt 89 

Huntington, Bishop F. D 99 

Ice-water fountain 81 



INDEX 

FAGB 

Immigrant homes 94 

Industrial revolution, effect of, on home 113, 114 

school 62, 65, 81 

in a village 75-79 

Institutional church 42-90 

adapting itself to changed con- 
conditions 46, 47 

an expression of religious life . . . 27, 28 

demand for, increasing 48-50 

distinguishing characteristic of. . . 45 

origin of name 42 

Jersey City Tabernacle 51, 68 

Jesus, social ideal of 30, 31 

Judson Memorial Church 64 

Kidd, Benjamin, cited 19 

Kindergartens 81 

Kingdom of God, rediscovery of 17-24 

early Christian conception of 18 

defined by President Bascom 30 

Kitchen gardens 81 

Laimdry, Parish 63, 72 

school 81 

Lecky cited 19 

Libraries 81 

Lincoln Park Baptist Church, Cincinnati 85-88 

Loan Associations 59, 80 

Lodging houses 80 

Manual training school 81 

Marcy Ave. Baptist Church, Brooklyn 68 

Medical aid society 80 

Mission 62 

" Meeting-house," an expression of religious life 26 

Methodist schools 93 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Methods, success of new 33, 34 

new and old compared 81-90 

Miami Baptist Association 85-88 

Mind and body, interdependence of 16, 17 

Morgan Chapel, Boston 60-63 

conversions in 63 

Multitude, reaching the, with religious influence 32-36 

failure of churches to reach the 32 

Music, library of 119 

Night-schools 78, 81 

Ninth Street Baptist Church, Cincinnati 73, 85-88 

Open and Institutional Church League, platform of, 43, 44 
Organized denominational effort for social better- 
ment 90-103 

Penny Provident Fund 58, 80 

Philanthropy and religion 22 

Pilgrim Church, Cleveland 70 

Potter, Bishop Henry C 99 

Presbyterian schools 95 

Pro-cathedral, New York 67 

Railroad Young Men's Christian Association no, in 

Rational amusement 80 

Reading-rooms 81 

Red Cross Auxiliary 71 

Religion, definition of 10 

applied to every- day life 28-32 

Roman Catholic Church, see note 79, 80 

Roof-garden — 56, 57 

Salvation Army 33, 120-130 

Science, influence of 16, 17 

Self-consciousness, society coming to 40, 41 

Settlement work 80 

Sewing-schools 74, 81 

136 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Shaw University 91 

Singing- classes 74 

Social conditions, effect of religion on 11 

Social ideal of Christ 21 

Society coming to self-consciousness 40j 41 

Soup-booth 81 

Spelman Seminary 91 

Steam-engine, effect of I4> i5 

St. Augustine's School ,. 96 

St. Bartholomew's Church, New York 52-60, 82 

St. George's Church, New York 65, 82 

St. Luke's Church, Orlando, Fla 73 

St. Paul's School 96 

St. Stephen's Mission, St. Louis 72 

Student volunteer movement 112, 13 1 

Synagogues 79 

Talladega College 92 

Temple, the Baptist, Philadelphia 68 

Tissot's pictures 72 

Toy Mission 71 

Trade-school 81 

Trinity Church Parish, New York 64 

Tucker, President W. J 42 

Union Congregational Church, North Brookfield, 

Mass 75-79 

Visiting nurse 7o> 7i 

Westminster Church, Buffalo 69 

Wood-yards 80 

World's Student Christian Federation 112 

Young Men's Christian Association 33, 70, 104-113 

Yoimg Women's Christian Association 1 13-12 1 



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DEC 1 1WW 



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